Even In Pain, Males Want Sex. Females Do Not

Yet another difference between males and females, at least between male and female mice. Male mice, even in pain, still want sex. Females, not so much. How do we know? Because researchers at McGill University conducted an experiment that put mice in a mating chamber with openings too small for male mice to squeeze through. A McGill news release explains that the arrangement enabled females to decide whether, and for how long, consort with a male partner. Readers may be unsurprised to learn that female mice in pain spent less time on the “male side” of the testing chamber, and consquently, had less sex. Wait, there’s good news: the researchers found that the sexual motivation of the female mice could be revived with a pain-relieving drug (pregabalin) or with either of two known desire-enhancing drugs. Male mice, for their part, were tested in an undivided chamber in which they had free access to a female partner in heat. Their sexual behaviour was entirely unaffected by the same level of pain. Read more from McGill University.